There is no doubt, last week was one of the most historically tragic weeks in the history of the United States of America. I've seen all of the graphic videos pertaining to Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. I have watched all the coverage of the shooting in Dallas, Texas. By no means am I an expert, I don't know if those two men were shot justly, that's up to the Department of Justice to decide. I have always been a cop supporter. Heck, if I wasn't disabled I would have become one. But as a white man, there is no way that I can give the perspective of a black person in this country.
I have no idea what it's like to live in a black person's shoes and I would never pretend to. However, from my perspective as a white, respecter of cops, even I can't deny that there is something wrong. There seems to be among cops, a sense of fear against black males. There is no question, that factually we can't deny that crime is committed at a higher rate in the black community. I think those facts and figures get into the heads of some police officers. When they see a black man their sensors start to sound off, their heart rate gets a little faster, and they get a little more defensive. Now, that is just a theory and a thought. By no means is it the excuse, but more of the problem. How do we weed out the bad cops? How do we get some cops to look past the skin color and deescalate situations instead of escalate them? But, at the same time how do we give credit to all of the good cops, who put their lives on the line every day to save us and are respectful doing it? I'm not sure I have the answer.
As Millennials we want to change things. But, in order to change things there must be words, thoughts, and action. unfortunately, most of us stop at words, Tweeting is fine, but it doesn't move the needle. Most Millennials believe that they are powerless because of the political landscape or whatever it may be. But the fact of the matter is, we are the generation now. We can't depend on our parents to make change, it's on us. And the only way to make changes is to believe that you can, believing that you can't, changes nothing, it's time to get out from behind our Twitter feeds and computer screens and actually put some effort in to make a difference.
It's time to really start researching and following local politics to decide who you really want making these decisions. But above all that I think it starts with us realizing that blue lives matter just as much as black lives, just as much as all lives matter. Just because you support the black lives matter movement doesn't mean your anti-cop and just because you support the blue lives matter movement doesn't mean you don't support black lives. The sooner we figure out that we're all one in the same, the quicker things will get better in this country.
